


complicated feelings

by queen_edmund_pevensie



Series: Advent 2020 [7]
Category: The Originals (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27759457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_edmund_pevensie/pseuds/queen_edmund_pevensie
Summary: "Turns out I have complicated feelings for a monster""And does that monster have complicated feelings for you"The time between 2x22 and 3x09. Cuts off just short of...you know...
Relationships: Klaus Mikaelson/Camille O'Connell
Series: Advent 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023931
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	complicated feelings

**Author's Note:**

> from tumblr prompts: https://edmundsmercy.tumblr.com/post/629014997640642560/send-me-a-ship-and-one-of-these-and-ill-write-a#notes
> 
> #14 klamille-- things you said after you kissed me

“Turns out, I have complicated feelings for a monster.”  
“And does that monster have complicated feelings for you?”  
“I think it’s entirely possible that he does.”  
Which seems, with Klaus standing inches from her, ridiculous that she was under any illusions about his feelings for her. They’re crystal clear, now, even if he seems too paralyzed by some emotion that’s making him clench and unclench his fists. He thinks she doesn’t see, acting cool and collected, talking about fate and time, talking about – well, her complicated feelings about him are getting in the way of what he might be saying, but it sounds to her like he’s talking about soulmates.  
He steps closer, so close she can feel his breath on her face. His head bobs forward, like he’s going to kiss her, but he stops himself. Why does he stop himself? It isn’t like doesn’t want to, like she wouldn’t kiss him back, like this is entirely unexpected, since he keeps showing up at her job and compelling the customers so they can spend time alone together. Instead, though, he stares into her eyes, like he can give her something that way he can’t in others.  
“I would have found you,” he tells her, taking her wrist in his hand, sliding his fingers down so that he’s holding it, like he’s unaccustomed to physical intimacy that isn’t also a threat, which is true, it’s literally true. She should be shaking, she should be afraid of him. Not twelve hours ago he bit her to rope her into an insane plan that she really believed he formulated not because he’s some genius mastermind but because he well and truly lost it!  
She’s not afraid of him. She cares about him. She wants, badly, to kiss him.  
“Thank you,” he says. The words are so small they’re almost lost in the music playing in the background and the bustle of late afternoon New Orleans outside the bar. “For –” He looks at her, purses his lips. Her heart skips a beat – she’s sure he heard – she thinks, for the second time, that he’s going to kiss her. He fumbles for a second, which is unlike him. In the time she’s known him he’s never been at a loss for words. But now, with no space between them – now he doesn’t know what to say. “For the drink,” he decides eventually, this time so quietly and so abruptly that Cami does think she misheard him, but he’s gone. Not in the supernaturally fast way. Just – gone, flustered, slamming the door behind him and standing on the street corner wringing his hands.  
She can’t know what he was going to thank her for, but Cami, astonished, stares at his silhouette outside, knows a thousand things she would thank him for. Beginning with the most perplexing of all: for always fighting for her.  
***  
She replays that moment a thousand times before he calls again.  
He does lean forward, and kissing him feels exactly like she always imagined it would. He is always so much warmer than she remembers. She wraps her arms around his neck, smiling through the kiss.  
“Thank you,” he says. “For believing in me.”  
Maybe it’s a little sentimental, to believe that she’s the one holding Klaus responsible, keeping him on the straight and narrow, that all he was missing was someone to believe that he wanted to be good, but it’s her favorite fantasy of how that night played out. Instead of – instead of Klaus storming off, leaving her hanging, leaving her frustrated and confused and then just not calling for two weeks.  
***  
When he does call, he wants to meet up. He doesn’t apologize. He doesn’t say anything about it at all. In the short time that she’s known him, this is the most awkward conversation they’ve ever had, including that time he revealed to Marcel that he had been compelling her to go out with him.  
In fact, they sit in silence for about ten minutes before he clears his throat and finally says: “Camille –” He stops, looks her intently in the eye, and then, tries again. “If you would be willing, I would – well, for Hope, I want to be a better man. And I think you could help me become that man.”  
Cami stares at him before she realizes what he’s asking. “I’m not – I’m not licensed,” Cami tells him. It’s the only thing she can think to say. “I haven’t finished my degree yet. You’re family keeps getting in the way.”  
“You need clinical experience,” he presses. Offers? She can’t read his tone. “And I will pay you.”  
“Okay, slow down,” she says. He totally blindsided her. Two weeks ago he was not-kissing her in Rousseau’s and now he’s asking her to be his…therapist. “Klaus, what makes you think I’m qualified for this?”  
“I don’t have many options, love,” he says, with a smirk. Which – this is frustrating. She’s only known him for like, a year and a half, but she can tell when he’s being glib to avoid telling the truth. Half the time she feels like kissing him, the rest of the time she feels like smacking him.  
“Let me think about it,” she says, quietly, and he quirks his lips in what might be a smile. Might be a frown. The expression is so brief she can’t tell. “I’ll get back to you.” She gathers her purse and her jacket and this time she leaves him.  
***  
Obviously, well, not obviously, but she does take him up on his offer, after she fudges the details about him to her advisor, and leaves out how she met him. She tells her (new, non-vampire possessed) advisor that Klaus is an eccentric billionaire with “chronic mood issues, and zero impulse control” who sought her out, personally, because he also has, inexplicably a “philanthropic streak the length of the Mississippi”, and she had a background check run on him and as far as she can tell – not dangerous. All both technically a lie and the truth, and it clearly makes her advisor uncomfortable, so she leaves out that he is also an “unstable, paranoid, narcissist,” until he agrees that seeing Klaus will count towards her thesis, under the condition that she doesn’t put herself in danger.  
So – so this is the deal. Strict boundaries, two hours a week, hearing endlessly about Klaus’ endless trauma. No indication that he’s doing this for any reason other than to spend more time with her. When she brings it up, once, he stares at her, like it’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard, and then he says: “This is how it must be, Camille.” And that’s the end of it.  
***  
“What do you wish?” she says. She already knows. She’s known for months.  
When he does finally kiss her, it’s better than she imagined, like every single cell in her body was made for this moment, like she had been waiting for it since the second she met him. It’s as intense as he is, and as gentle. Who else sees his gentleness? Who else does he display that long-buried side of him for, but her, and occasionally Rebekah? Like the room is spinning around her, but Klaus is keeping her rooted.  
And when he breaks away, he kisses her on the cheek, like he isn’t sure any of this is allowed. He laughs, just for her. Just for her.  
Later, when she wakes up and sees Klaus sleeping there, she wishes she could stay in this moment forever. This perfect moment of peace, but she knows that soon it will be over and she can’t keep seeing Klaus as her patient, but there’s so much else to look forward to, her human life with Klaus. But there’s no need to rush into it, no need to wait for morning.  
He loves her, somehow. A thousand years of violence and betrayal and loneliness, and he loves her. She hopes it can last, even just a moment longer.


End file.
